Call centers are used to provide services of a wide variety. For example, a company may use a call center to service customers around the world and around the clock.
In order to manage and improve the efficiency or performance of a call center, supervisors and others monitor the telephone calls. Various methods of monitoring and gathering data during monitoring have been devised to assist in this essential management task.
Clare et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,286 describe a system for supervising an automatic call distribution (ACD) telephone system. The ACD routes incoming calls to agents. However, certain agents may be unavailable to take a call due to unexpected delays in handling another call, change of shift or the like. Calls are therefore queued. A supervisor can monitor the size of the queues, length of time the oldest ACD call has been waiting to be answered or other call data and take action to assign additional agents to take calls, shift agents from other groups, shift agents from making outbound calls to taking incoming ACD calls. Clare describes a system for displaying agent activities, agent data, and agent status on a map representation and in a directory listing. The system also predicts pending abandonment of queued calls and the potential financial impact of pending loss of calls.
Maloney et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,907 describe a method and system for monitoring the performance of a call center agent by determining a number of calls or length of time within an interval for such monitoring. The system automatically records the performance of the agent at this time with or without notifying the agent. A supervisor may later listen to and annotate the recording.
Stuart et al. in US Published Application US2001/0032120 A1 describe a method for evaluating the efficiency of a call agent by collecting call handling data for that agent, collecting cost data for that agent, and computing a cost based performance indicator from the handling data and cost data.
Masami et al. in their abstract of Japanese published patent application JP2003298748A describe a call center analyzing system. A person in charge of analysis has a terminal with a data storing unit and an analysis database. The data storing unit collects telephone call information and telephone reception information and stores these in the database as call center information. The terminal analyzes this information. Using this system, the person in charge of analysis can quickly analyze the call center information.
Judkins et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,904 describe a method and system for collecting and reporting information on a call center operation, to a supervisor. A supervisor computer is connected to an ACD server and a structured query language (SQL) server having a database for call center statistics. At predetermined time intervals, the system automatically detects using the ACD server whether an agent is taking a call, completed a call but not yet indicated availability to take another call (wrap time) and the like, and forwards this to the supervisor computer. Real time reports are generated and displayed to a supervisor. At predetermined time intervals, statistical data related to agents and call center operation is sent from the SQL server and database to the supervisor computer to obtain historical reports of call center operation.
Prabhaker et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,253 describe a system for analyzing call center operations data. The system retrieves the data from a memory unit and processes it to determine agent composition and occupancy information. Agent groups that share a common skill are identified. The system generates reports indicating the agent composition and occupancy information.
Despite the above developments, there remains a need for improved methods of studying the operation of a call center and identifying areas for productivity improvements. It is believed that such methods would constitute a significant advancement in the call center management arts.